ENID ­ Some Oklahomans consider storm chasing a hobby, but it is one that has become increasingly dangerous in the past few years.

The problem reached its apex Wednesday when a tornado rolled past Hennessey, and a caravan of storm chasers and onlookers blitzed through town on Oklahoma 51. The swarm of chasers was so thick Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers shut down the road just east of town so emergency management officials and television spotters could do their jobs without interference.

OHP officials said some chasers are out to help the public or are conducting scientific research, but others are thrill-seekers who only get in the way. Some companies even offer tornado tours for thousands of dollars a week.

OHP Lt. Brad Shepherd said the situation has swelled to such a hindrance it has become a hot-button issue at OHP headquarters.

“It’s a mess,” he said. “There are way too many cars out there for all of them to be ‘official’ storm chasers. ... It certainly has been a topic of conversation in our circles, and we’re going to have to address it sometime.”

Mike Honigsberg, Garfield County emergency management director, said he has called law enforcement on a few occasions to get inexperienced onlookers off the road. He is in charge of a team of spotters who alert him to trigger sirens and get people out of the path of a tornado.

“My job is public safety. Our team doesn’t do what they do to get publicity. We do it to protect the public,” he said.

Not only is the tornado mayhem frustrating highway patrolmen and emergency management directors, but also professional television storm chasers. Chris Lee, who has been a storm chaser for 33 years, many of them with Eyewitness News 5 in Okla-homa City, said impatience and reckless driving is bound to end disastrously at some point.

Lee said he now deals with anywhere between 40 and 60 other storm chasers, all trying to get an up-close look at a tornado. Lee said there have been instances where vehicles have made U-turns in traffic and stopped in the road to take pictures.

He said the recent media craze and the advent of citizen journalism has attracted spotters of all experience levels to the field.

“I definitely think it’s become worse in recent years, because now it’s the ‘cool’ thing to do,” he said. “If you said you covered severe weather 20 years ago, people gave you funny looks. Now people say, ‘Oh really? Can I come with you?’”

Apparently the thrill-seekers are not just local residents. Lee said he saw license plates from Florida, Connecticut and Alberta, Canada, as he tracked a storm Wednesday.

Regardless of where one considers home, Shepherd gave a stern warning to all the average Joes thinking about joining the already overcrowded flock of storm chasers.

“If you’re John Doe looking to chase a storm just because you want to, by gosh we’re going to stop you,” said Shepherd. “If you’re gawking around, you can stay home and gawk around in your front yard.”

Honigsberg said citizens who are interested in being a storm spotter should contact him and set up appointments to learn the ropes. He said it isn’t enough to attend a one-day training session and call yourself a pro.

He mandates each of his experienced spotters to attend yearly National Weather Service training or to attend other courses to sharpen their skills. Inexperienced spotters must go through a more rigorous training.

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